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Robert (Bob) Boss

1932 - 2016

I had a great life. I was fortunate to have a wonderful mother and dad. My mother, Nellie was the one who taught me about God and my dad, Henry taught me about how to fix things and be a provider for a family. They also gave me a brother (who they always called, Son, so I called him, Son) and a sister (Dorothy) to tease and love my whole life. I went to school in Holland, MI. I spent my young, growing up years riding my bike to my music lessons and checking out any boats or water sports near Lake Michigan. And, I attended school which wasn’t my favorite thing to do. Holland High was a different time for me. This was fun and I even played in a little band for school dances. These music lessons were worth something after all. After high school graduation, I enlisted in the Navy. I always liked to say that I was an aviation electrician-mate 2nd class petty officer. The four years that I spent in the Navy were during the Korean War. These years in the Navy were my growing up time and all my wild oats were sowed in many countries. After the Navy, I attended Davenport Business Institute in Grand Rapids, Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne and graduated from Coyne Electrical School in Chicago. All this prepared me for my job of 30 years with IBM. During all of this, my sons (Chris and Jeff) came into my life. My life was pretty good now as I had two boys to share my love for anything to do with water sports. We had great times. We even moved to a lake to enjoy even more time in the water. In 1983, I married Karen (Wittrock). This gave me two step sons, Mike and Tim. I was suddenly put in the position to have four boys in college at the same time. This meant four junker cars in the driveway and four soon-to-be wives around (Lori P., Lori B., Cindy and Rosemarie.) The next few years were full of weddings and one by one, the grand kids kept entering my life. There were twelve; Tierney, Tyler (Allyson), Samantha, Jake, Carrie, Saylor, Sabrina, Paige, Haylie, Chloe, Victoria, and Scott. I was hoping no more because Karen and my Christmas shopping was getting out of hand. Karen and I spent our time with traveling and just enjoying being together. We were best friend and did what best friends do together except going shopping. I hated to shop for shoes and all the things that she liked to look at. We were always together except once a year when I went on my annual Canadian fishing trip with my longtime friends. Everything was going great until last year when I found out about my cancer. There were several months of doctor visits, treatments and a few times in the hospital. Finally, the Lord said that it was time to end all of this and come home to Him. I left to be with Him on January 31st.